The specialist field of plastic and aesthetic surgery is concerned with restoring form and function to areas of the body that have been damaged or destroyed by accidents or tumours. The harmonisation of physical features is another task of plastic surgeons. Members of the German Society of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons (DGPRÄC) are highly regarded all over the world. This means that patients are guaranteed medical services of the highest standard all over Germany.

Plastic surgery enables limbs that have been completely severed – as well as individual fingers, noses, ears and genital organs – to be reattached to the body and reconnected to the blood and nerve supply.

In operations of microscopic precision, whole sections of tissue including muscles, bones, arteries, veins and nerves can be transplanted from one part of the body to another to correct physical defects.

Professor Eisenmann-Klein is the Director of the Clinic for Plastic and Aesthetic Hand and Reconstructive Surgery at the Isar Medical Centre in Munich. She is also President of the International Confederation for Plastic Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery (IPRAS).

The Isar Medical Centre is a private hospital in the centre of Munich which has highly qualified specialists in almost every field of medicine.

Aesthetic surgery

All medically certified aesthetic procedures are performed at the centre. A key specialism is surgery involving autologous fat transplantation, sometimes using stem cell concentrates from fatty tissue. Corrective breast surgery is a major focus and includes enlargements, corrections of asymmetries and abnormalities using fat from the patient’s own body or high quality silicone implants, and breast uplift procedures. Facelifts and neck lifts are also performed routinely, often combined with soft tissue relining, eyelid lifts, nose corrections, liposuction and thigh and upper arm lifts. Autologous fat transplantation, in some cases using stem cell enrichment, is a key element of the Aesthetic Surgery department’s treatment concept for the regeneration of the skin and soft tissue.

Reconstructive surgery

All procedures in this specialist field are undertaken, including breast reconstruction after breast cancer surgery (also often using fat from the patient’s own body), breast reductions, uplift surgery after extreme weight loss, correction of congenital abnormalities, removal of tumours from skin and soft tissue, revision of scars after burns or accidents using the most complex flap procedures and tissue grafting techniques, and covering of decubitus ulcers that manifest in paraplegic or elderly patients.

Hand and nerve surgery

The clinic specialises in the treatment of phantom pain suffered by amputees.

It also carries out the full range of procedures in the field of hand surgery.

Intercultural expertise

The team regularly provides humanitarian aid in crisis areas and Third World countries. Through the IPRAS WomenforWomen project initiated by Professor Eisenmann-Klein, the clinic’s director and her second-incommand help to treat women who have been victims of fundamentalist intolerance or domestic violence (such as victims of ‘in-law burns’ in India, acid attacks in the Middle East and female circumcision in Africa).

The team at the clinic has acquired a high degree of intercultural expertise that stands it in good stead when treating international patients. This is thanks to its many visiting physicians and its cooperation with foreign doctors (e.g. from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt, Brazil, Mexico, Yemen, Syria, India, Colombia and Armenia), who come to the department either to complete their specialist training or to gain additional experience as a specialist. In particular, all team members are trained to support patients and other employees in the practice of their religion.

A caring approach

It takes more than just modern medical procedures for treatment to be successful. Care, empathy and sensitivity to the patient’s psychological welfare are, of course, just as much part of any approach to treatment, especially as patients being treated by plastic surgeons have often had to cope with exceptionally difficult circumstances.